THE BLUE SUIT
Private discussions between two friends, the mayor’s Blue Suit and Josh Resnek.
“Lot’s talk about, isn’t there, Josh?” the Blue Suit said to me as we drove down to Revere Beach Tuesday afternoon. “Yes, indeed,” I replied. “You hungry?” I asked the Blue Suit as I pulled up to Kelly’s. He looked at me, smiled broadly and said: “Do the bears sit in the woods?”
“OK. What do you want?” I asked.
The Blue Suit thought for a moment. He scanned the menus mounted on the front face of Kelly’s. Surprisingly, there were no long lines. It was too cool and breezy to eat outside. There was a still a chill in the air.
“I’ll have two lobster rolls and a pint of chowder, two hot dogs all around. An order of fries, onion rings and cole slaw – I love Kelly’s cole slaw – a large Coke, and a chocolate frappe.”
“Are you sure you didn’t forget anything?” I asked.
“Let me think…” he joked back to me.
“Naw. I’m all set.” And then he added,” Make sure that’s a large fries please.”
The Blue Suit’s tab came to more than $135.00. I ordered a salad with Italian dressing and a cup of clam chowder for $15 bucks. The total tab for our lunch? About $150.00 bucks.
We ate in the car.
What a mess.
The Blue Suit’s enormous appetite is exceeded only by his love of eating.
He went into the Satter House and did his thing. When he returned we took off.
“I can out-eat Carlo every time…and let me tell you, Josh, Carlo loves to chow down, especially when he’s nervous about things. Carlo won’t eat two lobster rolls but I’ve seen him devour two large Italian subs at the same sitting. That’s pretty impressive in this day and age if you ask me, don’t you think, Josh?”
“I guess so. Depends on what impresses you,” I answered.
So there we were at Revere Beach in my car in front of Kelly’s on a gorgeous but windy and cool day. The Blue Suit burped and belched his way through his lobster rolls.
“One lobster roll is never enough,” Josh, he said to me as he finished off the last bite of his second lobster roll. The Blue Suit eats a lobster roll the way some of us eat a hot dog.
When the Blue Suit had finished and I was ready to leave the beach, he said to me: “God. I’ve really got to go to the bathroom.”
“No kidding,” I said to him.
“Feeling better?” I asked.
“Oh yes, indeed,” he sighed. “I feel 15 pounds lighter.” Driving back to Everett we talked.
“What do you think of Deanna Deveney?” he asked me.
“I don’t really know her. I don’t think about her except for her performance on the videos everyone has been talking about. “Yeah,” the Blue Suit said. “That was an Academy Award performance wasn’t it?”
“You might say that. Calling Blacks “darkies” isn’t going to do much for her career, is it,” I answered.
“No. You’re right about that. Carlo put her on paid leave – a suspension of sorts. I don’t think she’s going to make it back,” the Blue Suit added.
“Do you think Carlo will fire her? Or does he still think all this stuff is simply going to be forgotten and won’t matter in a several weeks?” I asked.
The Blue Suit looked all around as if about to state a secret.
“Carlo doesn’t quite know what to do. Carlo believes in situations like this doing nothing is better than doing something. But I don’t agree with that. Things are changing. Carlo would have to be a fool not to notice. If he does nothing with Anthony, its going to be a lot worse than doing nothing about Deveney.”
“How’s Anthony doing?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“When Carlo talks with Anthony it’s like nothing is wrong. Carlo doesn’t believe Anthony has done anything wrong. Anthony believes he has done nothing wrong. It is the world and you, Josh, that has it wrong. If you weren’t around, everything would be OK. Blacks could be called ‘darkies” as Deanna calls them and then she and Anthony laugh or n-ggers, as Anthony is prone to do with the bits he sent around which he thought are funny,” the Blue Suit told me.
“Have you heard about the classes Anthony is attending to teach him how to love Black people and of how to speak about them without using the N-word and offensive cartoons?”
“No. I didn’t think he had started his course work yet,” I answered.
“The Bishop Brown has put him on a Internet doctorate program that has been very helpful to white supremacists trying to excise their hate of Blacks from their minds.”
“And how is that going?” I asked.
“Bishop Brown told Carlo Anthony is a star student. He claims Anthony has been staying up late at night studying how not to hate Blacks, listening to tapes and pod casts and even saying prayers before going to bed.”
“Are you serious?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“Of course not, Josh. I’m joking with you. Can’t you take a joke?”
Near Bell Circle the Blue Suit said to me: “Let me tell you what’s really up with Anthony and Carlo.”
“Go ahead. I can’t wait,” I said.
“Many people Anthony knows have been urging him to resign. His old boss at the insurance company where he worked has tried to persuade him to resign. But Anthony, as you know, has resisted. He doesn’t believe there’s any reason for him to resign. But I found out the reason he won’t resign. Carlo won’t let him resign. He’s got to stay until he can vote to remove Sergio Cornelio from the city clerk’s position he now holds. That’s why he’s hanging on. He’s hanging on for Carlo, cousin Carlo, the mayor forever, Carlo.”
“So they’re still trying to get rid of Sergio?” I asked.
“It is what is primary on their minds. Sergio left the nest. He’s caused a lot of problems. Deanna Deveney even said it before – she said that Sergio could be the undoing of everyone and everything having to do with Carlo. Carlo doesn’t want to admit it, but he knows that is just about right.”
“Isn’t that retaliation?” I asked.
“What kind of screwball are you, Josh?” The Blue Suit complained.
“Of course its retaliation. It’s retaliation with a capital R. Carlo says to nearly everyone around him he can’t be touched. He says no one will dare touch him – not the FBI, not Rachel Rollins, not Marian Ryan, the Middlesex DA, not the Ethic’s Commission and not the Commission Against Discrimination.”
“He said all of that?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“He says that all the time…and you know what, Josh? I tend to believe him.”